Panem: A History
by ryrous
Summary: In which we explore the origins of the Panemine government and the various families that have changed the course of the nation.
1. A History of the Early Panemine Gov't

HISTORY OF THE PANEMINE GOVERNMENT

After the Fall, the region called North America was in complete disarray. There was no organization, very little infrastructure, and practical anarchy. For thirteen years there was nothing—the remaining population stole from, pillaged, and murdered each other, fighting over resources like animals. This resulted in the rise of small tribes called clans, usually ruled by a semi-tyrannical leader.

Clan life was brutal—there was of course variations in form across the hundreds of thousands of clans across the country, but they tended to follow a general pattern. Any weak members were cast out and left to die, as well as anyone who challenged the clan leader. Switching clans was rare, so being cast out of one was generally a death sentence.

Cory Mercado was born into one such clan on the Yucatan Peninsula. His mother, a former schoolteacher and student of philosophy, taught Cory the concepts of representative democracy, in secret, so that the Clan leader wouldn't begin to see them as a threat. She was trying to raise Cory to believe in a better system, but, not having the resources or time that her old school-system had, she taught him a very simplified version of it, and underestimated how much of an impression the circumstances of his birth would make on him. She also gave him her remaining copies of Shakespeare's plays, which she had managed to save from destruction.

Cory, brilliant and passionate, grew quickly, secretly hating the clan leader and planning his overthrow. Because he had to do it in secret to avoid being cast out or killed, he also learned the skills of deception and manipulation, skills his mother had never wanted him to learn. He also was strangely superstitious, believing one day after waking with the sun in his eyes, that he was chosen by the heavens to be a great leader.

At fifteen, Cory Mercado murdered his clan leader as he slept, and declared himself the clan leader. He was not simply a leader, he told the clan, he was a Kaiser, and he would make Panem clan the greatest and largest clan the world had ever seen.

With a new, almost religious conviction, he charmed his clan members into loyalty, even adoration, and wherever they went they fought mercilessly for Clan and Kaiser. His followers regularly died for the young leader, even fighting over the honor. Their fervor and determination crushed other clans, and the young Cory Mercado quickly proved himself to be as brutal as any other clan leader.

Whenever Panem came across another clan, they slaughtered the leader publicly, so as many of the clan's members could see. He then turned to the members themselves, saying that he could offer them lives of untold abundance and safety from fear, so long as they pledged him their loyalty. Those who refused, or hesitated, were swiftly executed, and those who agreed, desperate for an easier, safer life, quickly began to see him as their savior.

Panem grew larger and larger, traveling northwards into the continent, and soon there were no clans left that even had a hope of defeating it. It had become a nation of fervent followers, bound together by their Kaiser. Cory's reputation was inflated by rumors of supernatural powers and mind reading—he'd become a demigod in the eyes of his people.

Within twelve years, Panem controlled almost all of North America, and Cory decided it was time to establish a government, as the needs of the country had grown too large for him to handle by himself. Remembering what his mother had taught him about democracy, he decreed that there would be fifteen Counselors, elected (ostensibly) by the people and presided over by the Kaiser. He established the Seat of the Counselors at his birthplace in Yucatan. The Seat was a grand and beautiful building, and Cory began adorning himself with jewels and precious metals during Sessions. The first Counselors composed of his friends (he'd completely ignored the results of the convoluted, clumsy election) and most loyal advisors.

Cory, now twenty-seven, was fond of his larger-than-life persona, and so decided to get rid of his simple, ordinary name: Cory Mercado. Instead, he took the name Coriolanus I, after his favorite play. This name probably sounds familiar to many people today—Coriolanus I was the namesake of the late President Coriolanus Snow, the last President of Panem before the Mockingjay Revolution.

Kaiser Coriolanus I was suspicious and cautious, like most people who have achieved high status by manipulation, lying, and murder. He was notoriously fickle, especially as he got older, and had a tendency to dismiss Counselors for small slights, lest they begin to believe they could challenge him. Officially, they were the land's lawmakers, but in practice, they had no say next to the Kaiser. Coriolanus I is the only Kaiser in history to govern this way, as his son Coriolanus II changed many aspects of the position after his father's death.

Despite his totalitarianism, decadence, and grand self-image, Coriolanus I was an effective leader for the fledgling country. He encouraged trade with the unattached clans outside of Panem's borders, built miles and miles of infrastructure, mainly in the form of trains, and brought peace and certainty to his subjects.

Though suspicious of his counselors for their want of power, Coriolanus loved his people, because they adored him. Once Panem had recovered the ability to broadcast (a phenomenal feat, considering televisions had not been used since before the Fall), he gave weekly addresses to the citizens of Panem, affectionately calling them his "children." He signed off every week with "Coriolanus's kiss," a gesture where he would press three fingers to his lips, and then hold them out in salute. This gesture entered Panem's culture immediately, though it has been completely forgotten in all Districts but the twelvth, where it has become a signal of farewell, usually associated with grief and death.

Coriolanus I reigned for sixty-three years, dying at age ninety, and the only period since his rule that has seen as much development and progress is the current one under the first Parliamentary government. Ninety-seven thousand Panemine citizens attended his funeral, where he was given the posthumous title Coriolanus the Conqueror. He was succeeded by his son, Coriolanus II, who immediately terminated the office of as Kaiser as a hereditary one. Instead, he decreed that the Counselors should choose the Kaiser by election, and then immediately abdicated. He was subsequently elected to the Kaisership after all, and proceeded to reign peacefully for sixteen years, dying at age eighty-seven.

Coriolanus II marked the beginning of a line of Kaisers who were in essence the lead Counselor, rather than the monarch his father had been. He is famous for listening and considering the opinions of all of his Counselors, and never once in his sixteen-year reign made a unilateral decision, a tradition that would continue until the elimination of the office by President Daedalus Talbot over one hundred and fifty years later. When he died, Coriolanus II was given the title Coriolanus the Modest.

The Seat remained at Coriolanus the Conqueror's birthplace until midway through the reign of the fourth Kaiser, Atticus I, when he moved it to a small town in the Rocky Mountains. The reason for this move was officially to be more "central" in the country, but there were whispers that the true reason was the growing wealthy and aristocratic class in the town. Atticus's reign was an unpopular one, because of his seeming preoccupation with the rich and powerful in the land. He was known for inviting his friends to stay at the Seat with him, something that had been reserved for the Kaiser's family before that. In fact, the Counsels of Atticus I seemed to care more about partying and decadence than they cared about the country. Atticus I most famous quote comes, in fact, from a party, when he was so drunk that the hostess asked him if he'd be able to make it back to the Seat on his own. He replied loudly, falling comically into a low bow: "May the odds be in my favor, madame." It is perhaps no surprise that he was subsequently called Atticus the Drunk.

In the early days of Panem, it was perfectly allowed to travel out of the country. It was the second counsel of Atticus the Drunk that forbade this, as well as he who divided the country into Districts, fostering generations of enmity and competition between them. The reign of Atticus I is widely considered the one of darkest of First Panem, topped only by that of Patolemy II.

The last Kaiser was Patolemy II ("Patolemy the Fool"), whose downfall marked the beginning of the Hunger Games era, the most totalitarian and brutal period in Panem's history.

* * *

 **A/N: This was an idea I had that sort of bloomed into something larger. Stay tuned for History of the Talbot family, the powerful aristocratic family that produced SIX victors, and the History of the Mellark family, an old family from District Twelve.**

 **If you liked this, check out my full length Hunger Games mystery story, Within These Walls.**

 **please review!**

 **-ryrous**


	2. A History of the Mellark Family

A HISTORY OF THE MELLARK FAMILY

At the very beginning of Kaiser Atticus I's reign, his first Counsel decided that the previously open borders of Panem were to be permanently and irrevocably shut. Panemine citizens would not leave, and foreigners would not enter. Ostensibly, this was to prevent "pollution" of the population by the "barbaric" outsiders, but really came down to his Counsel's Xenophobia and ideas of Panemine superiority.

At this time, a young, beautiful Panemine girl named Althea Larkin was living in a region called Norg, a beautiful, mountainous land in Northern Europe that was the remnant of the ancient kingdom of Norway. The Norgians were known as an extremely egalitarian people, and Althea was fascinated by them. Fiercely independent and idealistic, she wished to learn from the Norgians, so she could bring this value back to the increasingly hierarchical Panem.

While she was there, she caught the attention of Audun Berge Malvik (approximate paneminized pronunciation: OH-doon BEHR-geh MAHL-veek), a celebrated West-Norgian painter. He was captivated by her passion and her beauty, and asked her to marry him three weeks after he met her. Althea said no. She was not interested in marriage or a relationship with Audun, as she found him silly and frivolous.

But Audun did not give up. He pursued her for almost three years, in which time she learned to appreciate his company. Audun was a tad silly, yes, but Althea began to realize that perhaps she was tad too serious. Her view of him changed gradually, but soon what she had dismissed as frivolity revealed itself as lightness of spirit, and wishiwashiness to creativity and out of the box thinking. Althea did not realize she was falling, however, because doing so would have been immensely embarrassing, and she credited herself with having a high amount of control over her emotions.

It was during this period of friendship that Audun painted his magnum opus: an enormous and colorful oil painting of a girl bathing in a fjord. It was lauded by critics and praised as his best work. The painting was called _Althea_ , and though Audun Berge Malvik had people climbing over each other to buy it, he gifted it to the girl Althea, who was it's "subject and inspiration."

When the real Althea got the letter from her mother that she must return home to Panem or risk never being able to return, she burst into tears for the first time since she'd been twelve. Running across town to Audun's old wooden house, she was intending to say goodbye, and nothing else. Collapsing into his arms, she tearfully told him that she had to go back home. She'd grown fond of him and of Norg, but knew that she had work to do in the land of her birth, and it _had_ to take precedence.

Audun, bereft, fell to his knees and begged to go with her. He would want no-one else, ever, and he couldn't bear the thought of never seeing her again. She told him no over and over again, but he refused to listen. She told him he'd be put on a boat straight back to Norg, and the journey was long and dangerous, but he didn't care. He would follow her to the ends of the earth, he said.

After hours of arguing, she finally relented, and the couple decided that if, by some miracle, Audun managed to get into Panem, she would finally marry him—They would sell _Althea_ in Panem (Norgian money no longer being recognized) to form the basis of their life together.

Upon arrival, authorities did indeed try to put Audun back on a boat to Norg, but the supervising agent was, luckily, an art enthusiast who had heard of Audun Berge Malvik. He was supposed to be the best painter in all of Europe, and this fact convinced her to bring the case before the Counsel and Kaiser.

Althea and Audun presented their case before the Counselors, but Atticus was not swayed. It seemed a certainty that he would deny their position, until Audun's possessions were brought into the room, and the Kaiser caught sight of the painting _Althea_.

So taken was he with its beauty that he was willing to bend his rules to have it. He gave Audun a choice; give up the painting and stay, or keep it and be sent back to Norg.

The Althea was the only valuable possession Audun and Althea had. Without it, they would have nothing. Audun glanced at his love, and told the Kaiser that he could not accept the terms; he felt that without the money he could get for the painting, he was entirely unworthy of being Althea's husband.

He turned and began to walk towards the chambers exit when Althea ran to him, begging him not to leave her. She loved him, she said, the threat of losing him waking her up to it. She could live without money, and comfort, she said, but she would not be without Audun. She refused to take no for an answer. He was hesitant at first, but relented.

Audun told Atticus he would be glad to hand over the painting, and Audun and Althea were finally able to marry. The painting _Althea_ today hangs in the entrance hall to the modern Panemine Parliament, being moved there from the Presidential Mansion after the Mockingjay Revolution. President Paylor has said of this move: " _Althea_ belongs to the people of Panem, not solely the President. Thus it should hang where every Panemine can visit and admire it." This wonderfully egalitarian view is a great honor to the real Althea's memory, even as few people today remember the real painting's origin.

The independent Althea Larkin did not believe in taking her husband's name and forgoing her own, as it was, so instead the names Malvik and Larkin were combined into the new name Mallark, which was taken by both husband and wife. This was the family name for seventy years, until Althea and Audun's great-grandson Theodore Mallark changed the name to Mellark during his tenure as District Twelve's 18th Mayor, thinking it was easier for his constituents to pronounce.

Inititally settling in Althea's birthtown in Western Panem, the Mallarks quickly grew frustrated with its population, which grew increasingly wealthy and fancied themselves a sort of aristocracy. Soon, the Counsel moved the seat of Panem to the town, and began calling it the Capitol. Seeing the town of her birth corrupted by everything she hated about Panem broke Althea's heart. Jaded, she and Audun moved as far away as they could, ending up in the far-flung region of Appalachia, which the Capitol was beginning to call District Twelve. The people of the coal mining District were desperately poor, but here, at least, the people took care of each other, and that was enough for the burgeoning family.

The Mallarks had seven children: six girls and one boy, a matter which was a subject of many jokes in future generations, as practically every following generation of Mallarks/Mellarks was made up almost entirely of boys. Their oldest daughter Audhild (named for both her father Audun and his mother) would in her memoirs describe her childhood as a happy one. Though Althea was phenomenally strict, especially with her impulsive son Odin, she loved her children fiercely. Audun was the more gentle of the pair, remembered by Audhild as comforting and unendingly patient, being the voice of reason when Althea flew off the handle.

Audun lived until he was ninety-six, when an influenza outbreak in District Twelve carried him off in no more than five days, after refusing to allow his wife to tend to him for fear of infecting her. Though Althea managed not to catch the flu as a result, she missed Audun dearly, and died seven months later, aged ninety-four.

The large Mellark family was almost wiped out during the war of the treason, as nearly all the living Mellark males volunteered to fight for the rebel cause, and were slaughtered. By the time of the first Hunger Games, there were only five Mellarks left: Confectioner Marianne Mellark, whose husband was one of the first casualties of the war, her sons Jovy, Andre, and Emile.

Fifteen-year-old Andre was reaped for the second Hunger Games and came in eighth, dying gruesomely at the hands of an ex-ally. Marianne was destroyed by her son's death, only two years after the death of her husband, and never fully recovered. She spent the last twenty-five years of her life barely seen by the public, spending weeks not leaving her bedroom. Jovy, aged sixteen, effectively took over the Confectionary, expanding it into a full bakery to support his mother and five-year-old brother. The death of his brother and father, combined with the stress of running the bakery alone, had a profound and permanent impact on Jovy. He never married, and drowned in the Tennessee River at an age of fifty-three. His younger brother Emile once implied that his death could have been suicide. Eventually, Emile took over the bakery, and so would his son after him.

The Mellark family still exists today. Peeta Mellark, grandson of Emile Mellark and the husband of Mockingjay leader Katniss Everdeen, still lives in District Twelve with his wife and two children, Rose and Finn. Other prominent descendents of Althea and Audun include Delia "Delly" Cartwright, great-granddaughter of Toril Mellark Donner and third cousin to Peeta.

* * *

 **A/N: Stay tuned for the history of the Talbot family- producer of six Hunger Games Victors (some of whom are familiar) and Panem's first President.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


End file.
